brick walls

Everyone has a family line that just stops. That's a "brick wall".
Sometimes the reason is we are chasing a name that has been mis-spelled or changed. Sometimes the informant on the death certificate didn't know any of the family names involved...or they remembered them wrong. Sometimes the family involved had secrets.
My Grandfather had secrets. His mother lived with him for a while...so everyone knew his mother and her name....but there was never a mention of his father.
My grandfather wasn't catholic...but his mother was. I often asked a distant older cousin...a member of the family who should have know the secret...but didn't want to say it.
She would hesitate every time I asked her point blank.....then make a statement that was different...each time.
What I do know about my Grandfather's life is that he and his mother lived with distant cousins for almost the first ten years of his life. So what was that all about?
The most typical scenario would be an illegitimate birth. An out of family event as it is politely said in DNA circles. Yes, my mom heard Grandpa say something about being the "black-sheep" of the family. But his mother had a married name. In one of the city directories she was named widow of John....why would she bother....if she wasn't married? So when I check other references...like her job in a catholic institution (Catholics never throw papers out, it seems.)....she was the cook....she is listed as the widow of....On her death certificate, informant, my grandfather....she is separated...So, I am guessing my great grandmother was indeed married. But, we really don't know if her husband was the father of my grandfather.
Enter DNA testing. There is a way to check back on the surname my grandfather used. There are many DNA service companies. The price is reasonable...and they are starting "projects" for families of those surnames to see if the families are related to each other. By knowing the DNA haplogroup of the male surname line....we can check to see if it is likely that there was indeed an out of family event. There may even be a chance of finding the geographical area the birth father came from. Ireland, Germany, Africa, America, These are distant connections...but enlightening.
There is the lottery win, of finding another person who matches exactly, and finding a historical link to the out of family event. But we have to accept that there could never be an answer.
When asked about his father, my dear grandfather left the room...his faithful wife also left the room. Evidently, he didn't want to pass this knowledge on to anyone.
There is no hiding a secret with DNA. The y-DNA tests the father's father's father's....on through the time of the use of surnames. This can be very uesful in finding a common ancestor. These tests can get within two generations right now. That's pretty good.
The other most common type of DNA testing is the maternal or mt-DNA. This follows the mother's mother's mother's dna back in great sections of time. Common ancestors are numbered in multiples of generations...and hundreds of years. But it is a start...and there are some new tests which will add information. Maternal, mt-DNA is passed to both the sons and the daughters from the mother. So males can do both types of common DNA tests. But the males cannot pass their mother's DNA down to their children...of either sex, they only pass their own y-DNA, and that is only to their sons. Women only receive their mother's mt-DNA.
Confused? go to www.familytreedna.com and read some more.
And lest I sound like a commercial. Google....Google every family name, towns and family names, counties and family names. Military events and family names, fur trade, government, anything you know your own ancestors were involved in, could be out there.
Go to www.rootsweb.com a free site, and look at their message boards, their family trees, it's all free. Maybe you can find a distant cousin...and they might know more than you do.
Way to go...good luck finding that lottery win.